When the makeup and hair departments at Saturday Night Live are given a sketch for the upcoming weekend, they usually have about two days to work with the actors involved to get an idea of what they want to do, put it into concrete form, and execute it.
And then everything has to be removed and replaced, just a few minutes before the next sketch.
Jodi Mancuso, Head of Hair, and Louie Zakarian, Head of Makeup, work hand in hand to ensure the show’s guests and performers are prepared and ready for the evening.
“It’s very trusting,” Mancuso says of their collaboration. “When (the team) says Louie has to paint the wig, I say, ‘Go ahead.’ I have complete trust. That doesn’t usually happen everywhere… what we do, most people don’t understand. Our stuff only has to last three minutes and then it can completely fall apart.”
Zakarian says once they get the scripts and do a read-through on Wednesday night, they immediately start designing the looks for the weekend. For pre-taped sketches, they only have one day to put everything together before shooting on Friday.
And for the “Weekend Update,” Zakarian says, they sometimes only have Friday night to Saturday morning to prepare.
When Chloe Fineman appeared in a “Weekend Update” in May as JoJo Siwa in her new look, Zakarian said he and his team had to figure out how to pull off the glittery black makeup in just under a day.
Chloe Fineman as JoJo Siwa and presenter Colin Jost during Weekend Update (Photo: Will Heath/NBC)
Will Heath/NBC
He says he and Jason Milani, one of the makeup artists on his team, tested a ton of makeup looks on each other the night before. Since Fineman had to leave for another sketch five minutes after the segment, Zakarian says they had to find a way to wipe off the dark, intense makeup in just two minutes.
“I was able to find this palette that had this amazing glitter makeup,” says Zakarian. “After we painted the black lines, we could just stick the glitter on top of the makeup and it stayed on beautifully. And then it all came off really easily with just a hot towel.”
And sometimes changes to the actors’ hairstyle and makeup are made up to a few minutes before their performance.
When Emma Stone hosted in December 2023, she played Mitch Lester, a sleazy record producer for singer Cass Elliot (played by actress Chloe Troast) in “Make Your Own Kind of Music.” The character wore a puffy graying wig, a sparse mini-moustache, and a cigarette that she constantly held in her hand.
Mancuso says she originally had a darker wig for the scene, but after a rehearsal, they wanted to make the character appear older, so she added more gray to the front of the hairpiece.
Although Stone originally wanted to go bald and have more facial hair, Zakarian says that wasn’t feasible given the rapid changes. They tried three different styles of facial hair before settling on this pencil-thin mustache.
“It looks easy to the audience, but sometimes it can be challenging,” says Mancuso. “Something about this character really appealed to (Stone). There was actually quite a lot of conversation and changes, it wasn’t as easy as it seems. They added the cigarette at the last minute, she almost wore glasses. There was quite a lot of playing with it.”
And despite the quick turnaround time of their work, Mancuso and Zakarian say the adrenaline rush keeps them going.
“When you’re in it, you’re dealing with time,” says Mancuso. “You want to make everyone happy and you’re part of that. And it’s in our blood now. If you’re doing a light show, you’re almost whistling Dixie and you’re bored.”
